When a car owner decides they need their current vehicle serviced or want to buy a new one, the first place they turn is online. “Just Google it” is a common response as people depend more and more on the internet to find solutions. This can make or break your car dealership. As people search, they also see your dealership reviews.
Use these tips to get better reviews for your car dealership.
Focus on Customer Service
The best way to get better reviews is to improve the customer experience. People are more likely to leave a review when they are unhappy. Going above and beyond to create a memorable positive experience can provide the driving force that motivates someone to leave a positive review.
Think about the entire customer experience from the moment they step through the door to the second they drive off the lot. Each touch point and employee interaction should be a positive one. Focus on the individual’s needs while maintaining timely and transparent communication.
Using car dealership software can help your service department by allowing your team to create an automated but personalized service plan for each customer. Software that allows you to schedule shuttle rides and update your customers reduces frustration for the customer as they know exactly what is going on at all times. Furthermore, ensuring that your shuttle drivers are courteous and safe gives the customer another motive to write something positive.
Respond to Negative Reviews
Actively monitor your online reviews and respond to those who leave comments expressing a negative experience. You may be able to turn a negative review into a positive one as 30% of consumers reverse a negative review once their concern has been addressed. For example, if the negative review expresses dissatisfaction with your car dealership’s performance, invite them to reach out to upper management to address the situation. If you can correct it, the reviewer may go back and amend their review. Even if you’re unable to rectify the situation, you can address this failure in customer service with your team to prevent it from happening again in the future.
Keep Track of All Reviews
A good way to gauge what’s working well and what’s not is to keep track of what people are saying, whether that’s negative or positive. When you see that a happy customer has left a positive review, respond and thank them and record it. It may be a good idea to keep a document with different categories and themes of what people are talking about. On the same token, take note of what people did not enjoy about their experience so you can work to implement a plan that ultimately leads to a majority of positive reviews.
Ask For the Review
Don’t sit back and hope that customers will write a positive review for your car dealership. Ask happy customers to write a review. Your service department can send out requests during the times when customers are most likely to write a review, or if they took a shuttle ride - right after they’ve been dropped off. Include a link to the website or form where you want them to write a review. The goal is to make the review writing process as simple as possible for the customer, so keep this in mind when creating your submission form. This makes it more likely that they will follow through and post a review..
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